


as bright as the flowers that will

by tinygumdrops (curryramyeon)



Series: call out my name (i'll come running) [3]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff, Freeform, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-13 02:23:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16883841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/curryramyeon/pseuds/tinygumdrops
Summary: Perhaps it’s sort of damning that it takes Kyungsoo five times to get himself to talk to the pretty bartender. He hates being a nuisance, after all.





	as bright as the flowers that will

**Author's Note:**

> this pairing just outright _grabbed_ me by the neck, i just *disturbing wailing noises* what a loser i am.
> 
> hope you'll all enjoy!

 

 

~O~

 

 

 

“Nam Jihyun-ssi?”

The girl turns around and looks at him, eyes widening slightly. “Yes?” she says.

“Nothing.” Kyungsoo ducks his head for a second before raising it up again. “Just… that’s your name, isn’t it? Jihyun?”

“Yes, that’s me!” She taps her nameplate thrice. “What can I get you, sir?” Her smile is as bright as the bar lights.

Kyungsoo plonks himself on the barstool. “Something strong, I guess. I really don’t care what it is.” He bites his lower lip. “Maybe.”

Jihyun laughs a tinkling laugh. “Maybe?” she says. “You have to be sure, sir!”

Kyungsoo smiles sheepishly. “I’ll just have whatever it is you’ve been making for me.”

Jihyun laughs again. She offers him a salute. “On it!”

Kyungsoo’s eyes trail after her long, swishing ponytail as she vigorously mixes his drink. She then starts humming to herself as she opens a jar of sliced peaches. She’s sweating a little under her cream polo shirt, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration.    

She is, Kyungsoo finds, extremely pretty.

“I know your name because I asked Kim Seonho-ssi,” Kyungsoo blurts.

Jihyun perks up at the name. “Ahh! You’re a good friend of Seonho oppa!” She sets aside a glass with her free hand then pours the drink in. “Do you go to his school? The one that’s a few minutes’ walk away from here?”

“Yes. We’re under the same program.”

“Oh, _really_? Wow! What a small world!” Jihyun hands him his drink. “We’ve been neighbors since we were kids! You’re one of his juniors, aren’t you? Tell me if he hasn’t been taking a good care of you.” She shakes her fists. “He might be older than me, but I can totally whip him up for you if he hasn't!”

“Ahh, no. He’s really good to me. Too good, to be quite honest,” Kyungsoo says. “I—well. I saw you talking to him that one time both of us came down here for a drink, and—well. I just thought…”

He then feels the need to elaborate, “I’m not a stalker or anything!”

Jihyun laughs, shaking her head and waving both of her hands at him simultaneously. “No, no! I really, _really_ hadn’t thought that!” she insists. “Besides, wasn't I the one who came onto you with a drink?” She winks, snickering after.

Kyungsoo’s cheeks flush despite himself. “I asked Seonho hyung about you because I wanted to thank you for that… Well, for all the days you’ve been making this for me, actually.” He holds out his drink. “Especially that first time. You didn’t even have me pay for it!” Kyungsoo knows he sounds way too disgruntled than he should be, but he can't help himself. For some strange reason, he gets flustered just remembering it.

“ _Ei~_ ” Jihyun says, tilting her head. “It’s nothing, really! Don’t give yourself so much grief about it, Seonho oppa’s junior! We do get loads of customers like yourself, and I’m just doing my job.”

“Your job?”

“Right! My job,” Jihyun declares, standing straighter. “Is to cheer you up.”

Kyungsoo stares at her.

“You looked really lonely that day,” Jihyun explains.

Kyungsoo scratches his nape with his index finger. “Did I?” he croaks.

“You did.”

The laugh Kyungsoo lets out is half-startled, half-strained. “Sorry if I seemed like that,” he says. “And that it bothered you. But I wasn’t. Not really.” He rubs his nose. “I mean, I don’t think so.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Jihyun says, smiling softly. Kyungsoo feels uneasy when he realizes that she means it.

Another customer calls from the far end of the counter, asking for a shot of Caribou Lou. Jihyun takes out a wooden stool underneath the counter with her foot. She then gets a bottle from the cupboards.

After taking several other orders, she comes back to Kyungsoo’s side of the bar counter and starts refilling the small silver trays with peanuts and raisins.

Kyungsoo studies her briefly before turning his attention to his lap.

“I just space out sometimes,” Kyungsoo says. “And the expressions I make… sorry. I can’t help it. When I have an off day, it’s just… I don’t really—did I really bother you…?” 

Kyungsoo hears a ghost of a chuckle, and he looks up. Jihyun is beaming at him again, eyes crinkling at the corners.

“Why are you even apologizing?” Jihyun admonishes, shaking her head. “I understand. Really! You don't have to explain yourself. Should you?"

"I… I guess not." 

"Right! I have this friend—I think she’s also good friends with Seonho oppa—and she has this vibe to her… They used to call her ‘ice queen’ back in high school. But she’s really one of the kindest people I’ve ever met!”

Jihyun puts her hands to her hips and continues, “My mom always tells me, ‘Jihyun-ah, don’t judge a book by its cover’, and I think she’s quite right! She almost always is.”

“She sounds lovely.”

Jihyun’s eyes brighten. “She is! You know, I always end up going to her whenever I feel down or whenever I have a problem… do you go to your mom when you run into something? Your dad?”

“Er, well.” Kyungsoo looks down on his glass. “I don’t talk to them as much as you do, I'd venture a guess.”

Jihyun nods. “I won’t argue with you on that one,” she says. “My friends always comment that I’m too close with my parents. Like, _way_ more than normal. Especially my mom. But I can’t help it—even though they’re far away, they always just sense whenever something’s wrong. Especially Mom. Isn’t it strange? Mom is just…”

Her eyes widen and she blinks rapidly. “Ahh, seriously, what am I doing?” She chuckles stiltedly. “Sorry, I’m talking a lot.”

“I don’t mind,” Kyungsoo says. He really doesn’t.

Jihyun takes out a rag and starts furiously wiping the counter. Kyungsoo can sense that she’s thinking hard about something. He decides not to say anything further.

Kyungsoo cranes his neck up and looks around. There aren’t many people tonight, unlike yesternight and the several nights before that. The guy with the Caribou Lou is all by himself, muttering at his phone. Another man in a three-piece suit sits three barstools away from him, drumming his fingers on the counter and looking back to the glass doors every few seconds.

There’s a couple conversing at the table by the window, their exact words muffled by the crooning of the radio. They’re at the same spot Kyungsoo was that first night. It was 10 pm of a Wednesday, almost the end of a very long day, and he had been sitting there for hours, staring blankly at the window as the cars passed by, doing nothing else. He hadn’t even thought of ordering anything, at that point in time.

And perhaps it was because of that, a girl with straight, dark brown hair and clear eyes approached his table.

 _“It’s on us,”_ he recalls her whispering and placing a drink on his table before quickly slinking away. He recalls himself wondering afterwards.

The girl had a concerned expression on her face, in that split second he saw her.

Was he glaring at something again? Did he look angry? Scary?

(Lonely?)

He sort of remembers now, how he might have looked like from the outside. How he might have needlessly troubled someone like her.

Kyungsoo frowns to himself.

“Sorry, but I forgot to ask,” Jihyun’s voice breaks him out his reverie. She seems slightly embarrassed as she washes the rag by the nearby sink. “What’s your name?”

“Kyungsoo. Do Kyungsoo.”

“Ahh! Kyungsoo-ssi…” Her expression turns curious. “What Chinese characters do you use?”

Kyungsoo frowns further. He’s been asked this before. “‘Kyung’ means _bright_. And ‘Soo’ means _flowering._ Or _flourishing_ , I think.” He then sighs, grimacing. “I know, I know. It really doesn't suit me in the slightest—"

“No, no, I think it does,” Jihyun says. “You seem like a bright person.”

“You said I look lonely,” Kyungsoo points out.

Jihyun bursts into laughter. “Not when you’re smiling like earlier, you’re not!” she says. “And that was just _one_ time!”

Kyungsoo looks at her dubiously.

Jihyun’s still snickering as she wipes the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. “The _hanja_ for my name is _will and ambition_ for ‘Ji’, and _handle_ for ‘Hyun’. My friends say I can be really passionate, especially with certain things, so I think it suits me! How old are you, Kyungsoo-ssi?”

“Twenty-six.”

“Ahh, so you’re an oppa! I actually just turned twenty-four this September.”

“I know. Seonho hyung said you are,” Kyungsoo says. He then repeats, “I’m not a stalker. Seriously.”

Jihyun's lips thin, her shoulders quaking in silent laughter.

“I’m not sure if you’re making fun of me or not,” Kyungsoo mumbles, his ears feeling distinctly hot.

“Would you believe me if I said I wasn’t?” Jihyun challenges.

Kyungsoo thinks about it. “… I guess not.”

Jihyun grins up at him, and Kyungsoo can truly see why Seonho spoke of his neighbor so admiringly, whenever Kyungsoo mustered enough courage to ask about her. Her energy is infectious. Kyungsoo can feel the corner of his lips lifting at every smile she throws his way, his skin warming quite pleasantly.

“See what I mean?” Jihyun says, gesturing at his expression. “Your name _does_ suit you!”

Kyungsoo averts his gaze. With the way her eyes are shining like mirrors, he almost can’t find it in himself to disagree.

After a moment, he downs his drink in one go and looks at her.

“Nam Jihyun-ssi,” Kyungsoo begins after clearing his throat. “If it’s, um—if you don’t mind… after your shift, is it alright if I walk you home?”

 

 

 

~Fin~

 


End file.
